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| Perdita woman: Anne Denton's |
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Biography Anne Denton is one of the compilers of Folger Shakespeare Library MS E.a.1, a prose miscellany dating from the mid-sixteenth century to about 1590. Denton's dates of birth and death are written on the first folio as 1 November 1548 to 29 October 1566. The scribe notes that she died at age 18. The dates of the birth and death of John Willison of Ledbury, a child who died at age 10 (i.e. his dates are 15 August 1544-21 June 1553) are also written on that page. Anne was the daughter and only heir of Richard Willison, esquire (d. 1574) of Sugwas and his wife Anne Elton of Ledbury, both in Herefordshire. She married Alexander Denton, the only son of Thomas Denton of Hillesden in Buckinghamshire and his wife Margaret. Alexander died in 1574. Anne's date and age of death (in 1566 at age 18) is confirmed by one pedigree; another lists a daughter Janne [Jane?] (George Lipscomb, The History and Antiquities of the County of Buckingham (London: J & W Robins, 1847), vol. 3, pp. 17-18; The Visitation of Herefordshire made by Robert Cooke, Clarencieux, in 1569, ed. Frederic William Weaver (Exeter: William Pollard, 1886), pp. 76-77). The identity of John Willison is not certain; perhaps he was Anne's cousin. The Denton and Willison families had gentry connections. Anne Denton's father, Richard Willison, was an esquire, and the Dentons of Hillesden ""were a family of considerable local importance"" (William Page, ed., The Victoria History of the County of Buckingham (London: St. Catherine Press, 1927), vol. 4, p. 173). The manuscript demonstrates clear Roman Catholic sympathies; Denton probably shared this faith. |
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Folger
Library: MS E.a.1 Folger
Library: MS E.a.1 |